People in an Olathe neighborhood continue to drink bottled water and wait for test results to tell them whether their tap water has high levels of lead in it.

Routine tests indicated the presence of lead in a water line that serves about 100 customers in the Ridgeview South subdivision.

Advertisement

Additional tests on water samples taken from residents’ taps should confirm whether or not the water is safe.

“This was quite a surprise,” said resident Jack Klee, who saw workers installing a temporary water line at his neighborhood Thursday.

He and other residents were surprised late Tuesday when city employees visited them to tell them about the initial tests on their water line.

“You never know,” Klee said. “You never know what danger lurks, as they say.”

By Thursday afternoon, the city had shipped 93 samples to a lab. The individual tap tests will help determine whether the initial test was accurate or a false positive. City leaders said Wednesday it will probably take about five days for those test results to come back.

“We are in a waiting game,” said Olathe spokeswoman Erin Vader. “We are anxious to work with the lab. We have asked the lab to prioritize this, to expedite it. We have encouraged them to work through the weekend.”

The temporary water lines laid down Thursday were part of a previously planned project that was also put on the front burner.

Klee said he’ll wait and try not to worry.

“The problems in Flint (Michigan) always are on the back of your mind, that this could be something much more serious than we think it is,” he said.